Spinning Top

Spinning Top applies a measurable rule set to the candle every trader recognizes but scanners disagree on — the definitive clean detector for the spinning top. A qualifying bar needs a real body inside the size band, both shadows longer than that body by the required ratio, and a body midpoint inside the central portion of the bar's range; each hit is tagged ST, colored by its trend context, with a tooltip quoting its body and shadow proportions.

How to Trade the Spinning Top?

• After an advance: a spinning top above the trend SMA (bear-colored) marks momentum stalling — watch the next candle for exhaustion or continuation.
• After a decline: below the SMA (bull-colored), the same shape reads as selling pressure pausing, a potential stabilization.
• Resolution markers: a triangle prints when a following close clears the pattern's high or low inside the resolution window — the direction of that close is the information.
• In range: neutral-colored tops are routine noise; the Context Filter can hide them.

The pattern itself is a pause, never a direction call — the resolving candle supplies the direction.

Spinning Top Settings

• Maximum Body Size % (default 33): largest real body allowed as a share of the bar's range.
• Minimum Body Size % (default 5): bodies at or below this are treated as doji and skipped.
• Shadow / Body Ratio (default 1): each shadow must exceed the body times this ratio — 1 is the textbook rule.
• Body Centering Band % (default 33): confines the body midpoint to the middle share of the range.
• Context Filter (default Any) and Trend SMA Length (default 20): which contexts are marked and how the prevailing trend is defined.
• Resolution Window (bars) (default 1) with Resolution Markers (default on): how many candles may resolve the standoff.
• Style — Show Trend SMA (default off), Color Pattern Candles (default off), Label Size (default Tiny).

Frequently Asked Questions

What separates a spinning top from a marubozu?

They are opposite records of a session: a Marubozu is one solid body without shadows — a bar one side owned from open to close — while the spinning top is mostly shadow, travel in both directions that settled near where it began.

Why is there a minimum body size?

To keep the doji out: a body under the threshold belongs to a different pattern with its own reading, and where the line falls between the two species is a convention that differs between scanners. The default hands bodies of 5% of range or less to the doji category.

Can it fire alerts by context?

Yes — five: any spinning top, tops after an advance, tops after a decline, and the two resolution closes.